Hoyer: Defunding Libya undermines NATO

POLITICO

Published 9:41 am, Tuesday, June 21, 2011

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer said Tuesday he opposes the idea percolating in the House to defund U.S. involvement in Libya.

"It certainly would undermine the confidence of NATO in the ability of the president of the United States to participate in support of an effort that NATO had agreed to, that the United Nations had agreed to, and that the Arab League had agreed to," Hoyer told reporters during a briefing Tuesday.

The House GOP leadership is meeting today to discuss a plan on Libya that could come to the House floor for a vote as early as this week. Speaker of the House John Boehner has threatened to pull funds for the operation.

President Barack Obama told Congress last week that he didn't need congressional approval for Libya because the military actions there do not amount to full-blown hostilities, as defined by the War Powers Act.

Hoyer's remarks came as Sens. John Kerry and John McCain proposed a resolution in the upper chamber that would limit U.S. operations to Libya to one year and make clear that the Senate agrees there is no need for ground troops there.

Meanwhile, Hoyer declined to comment on reports that President Obama will announce a withdrawal of 10,000 troops from Afghanistan by this year's end and all 30,000 surge troops by the end of 2012, saying he would wait to make remarks until Obama makes it official. Obama is scheduled to make his announcement Wednesday.

But "what I have said is that the president needs to have a significant drawdown," Hoyer said. "I have not defined significant and I want to see what the president has to say and the rationale he uses."

By winding down the decade-long U.S. military effort in Afghanistan, resources could be channeled into other locations where Al Qaeda was active, Hoyer said, warning that the terrorist organization was "ubiquitous."